History of Oceans and Atmosphere Unit

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Summary

There is a preponderance of data indicating that the Earth's oceans and atmosphere are changing. Has this happened in the past? What may have caused the oceans and atmosphere to change? What data supports our understanding of the history of oceanic and atmospheric chemistry, structure, and dynamics? How can understanding past changes inform us about current changes?

Download the History of Oceans and Atmosphere Unit (Acrobat (PDF) 149kB Dec9 21)

Context for Use

Grade Level: High School

Class: Environmental & Earth Science

Instructional Time: 2-week (10-day) unit

Instructional Strategy: Phenomena/Data-Based Investigation

Learning Objectives

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Sunset Ocean Beach -- San Francisco

Provenance: Katryn Wiese, City College of San Francisco
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

1. Analyze data and graphs showing changes over time of carbon dioxide, oxygen, and temperature (HS-ESS2-7)
2. Identify correlations between geologic, biologic, and impacts with the conditions of the oceans and atmosphere. (HS-ESS2-7)
3. Model possible feedbacks between Earth's systems that create changes in the atmosphere and oceans. (HS-ESS2-2)
    
4. Develop and present their findings regarding the mechanisms of change and the feedbacks. (HS-ESS2-2)
    

CLEAN Resources Used in this Unit

• The Earth's Heat Budget 
   
• PETM: Unearthing Ancient Climate Change 
   
• Natural Climate Change 
   
• Milankovitch Cycles and Climate 
   
• From Mud to Molecules: What Deep Sea Sediments Can Tell Us about Past Climates 
   
• Abrupt Events of the Past 70 Million Years " Evidence from Scientific Ocean Drilling 
   
• From Mud to Molecules: What Deep Sea Sediments Can Tell Us about Past Climates 
   
• Abrupt Events of the Past 70 Million Years " Evidence from Scientific Ocean Drilling 
   
• Ice Core Secrets Could Reveal Answers to Global Warming 
   
• Antarctic - Vostok Ice Core 
   
• Arctic - Greenland Ice sheet project 2: A record of climate change 
   
• Paleoclimate Reconstructions using lake varves 
   
• Sea Change Part 1: In the Field 
   
• Sea Change Part 2: In the Lab 
   
• Sea Change Part 3: Interpreting the Results 
   
• Off Base - Acidity of oceans
   
• Lehigh's Interactive Geologic Timeline Activity
   

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